Where Are My Children?
| Where Are My Children? | |
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| Directed by |
Phillips Smalley (uncredited) Lois Weber (uncredited) |
| Produced by | Phillips Smalley Lois Weber |
| Written by |
Lucy Payton (story) Franklin Hall (story) Lois Weber Phillips Smalley |
| Starring |
Tyrone Power, Sr. A.D. Blake Marjorie Blynn Juan de la Cruz |
| Cinematography |
Stephen S. Norton (uncredited) Allen G. Siegler (uncredited) |
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Production
company |
Lois Weber Productions
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| Distributed by | Universal Film Manufacturing Company |
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Release date
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Running time
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62 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent film English intertitles |
Where Are My Children? is a 1916 film in which a district attorney, while prosecuting a doctor for illegal abortions, finds out that society people, including his wife, used the doctor's services. It stars Tyrone Power, Sr., Juan de la Cruz, Helen Riaume, Marie Walcamp, Cora Drew, A.D. Blake, Rene Rogers, William Haben and C. Norman Hammond.
Richard Walton, a district attorney, is presented with an obscenity case: A medical practitioner, Dr. Homer, has been arrested for distributing 'indecent' birth control literature. On the stand, Dr. Homer makes a strong case for legalizing contraception. He recounts three incidents from his medical practice, each shown in a brief flashback: children are exposed to violent abuse in a family riddled with alcoholism; an impoverished family is unable to provide adequate medical care for their sick children; and a single mother, abandoned by her male lover, commits suicide with her young infant.
Meanwhile, Richard's wife, Edith, has been keeping a secret from him for many years: she has been seeing a doctor, one Herman Malfit, who performs abortions so that her busy social life will not be interrupted by the inconvenience of pregnancy. She suggests it as an option for her friend Mrs. William Carlo, who is with child. Mrs. Carlo has the abortion.
The Waltons receive two new guests in their house almost simultaneously: Edith Walton's ne'er-do-well younger brother, and their maid's young daughter, Lillian. Smitten by the brother's advances, the maid's daughter is seduced and soon finds herself pregnant. She is taken to Dr. Malfit and then abandoned by the boy after the operation goes wrong. Making her way back to the Walton mansion, she collapses and dies from the botched abortion.
Following Malfit's arrest and trial, Richard Walton examines the doctor's ledgers and realized that his wife and many of her friends are listed as having received 'personal services.' He returns home, furious, to find them lunching at his home. He banishes his wife's friends, saying 'I should bring you to trial for manslaughter!' and confronts Edith with the cry, 'where are my children?' She is overcome with remorse. As the years pass, the couple must contend with a lonely, childless life, full of longing for the family they might have had.
The film was inspired by the obscenity case of Margaret Sanger in New York. It stands as one of the best surviving examples of Lois Weber's social problem films.
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Wikipedia